UNIST, the Only Truly International University in Korea

[WHY UNIST] Prof. Kwang Soo Kim, School of Natural Science

“What really attracted me to UNIST was its ambition to become the world’s leading S&T research institute by 2030,” says Dr. Kwang Soo Kim who is a National Honor Scientist of Korea in Chemistry field and the Director of the Center for Superfunctional Materials at UNIST.

For future students considering a degree at UNIST, Dr. Kim gives his top reasons why they should choose UNIST.

Dr. Kim believes that “UNIST is a truly international university where world-renowned scientists from a wide range of disciplines come together to carry out top-notch research and provide forefront education.” According to him, UNIST’s state-of-the-art research facilities, together with its world-renowned chemistry faculty give UNIST a very good reason to be the truly international university in South Korea.

Moreover, Dr. Kim is confident that “UNIST has one of the top chemistry departments in Asia.” He continues by saying, “This would enable students to work at the cutting edge of science innovatively.”

When asked what advice he would give to aspiring young scientists, Dr. Kim responded: “Dream the future. Make the impossible possible through breakthrough thinking.”

In 2014, Dr. Kim joined UNIST as a Distinguished Professor with research and teaching focus in Chemical Physics and Nanosciences. His current research interests include the areas of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, Physics, and Experimental Nanosciences.

Dr. Kim wears many academic hats. He received his B.Sc. and M.S. degrees in applied chemistry from Seoul National University. He also holds a M.S. in physics from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1982. Prior to joining UNIST, he worked as a professor of Chemistry and a direcor of the Center for Superfunctional Materials at POSTECH.

He is a National Honor Scientist of Korea, as well as a Fellow of the Korea Academy of Science and Technology. He has been an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Physical Chemistry (A, B, C), Journal of Molecular Structure: THEOCHEM, Journal of Computational Chemistry, and Chemistry An Asian Journal. He has been a Conference Board Member of the World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemistry and the Asian Pacific Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry.